“She’s scared. Really scared. I’m not sure she’d even answer the door to you right now.”
“She will,” Ajax told her calmly. “I just want to help her.”
“I know. But she doesn’t really trust anyone but me.” And Ria had let her down. How had he found her?
Ajax frowned. “Ria . . .”
She tensed. She couldn’t tell them where Sophie was without her permission. She owed her that much at least. But she hated going against Ajax. He’d been nothing but good to her.
Connor spun around. “What’s she going to do now?”
“What? I don’t know.”
They hadn’t exactly had a chance to talk about it. To discuss what to do next. Fuck.
“She needs some help right now, Ria,” Connor told her firmly. “You’ve done your best, but it’s time to let someone else help.”
“I can protect her, Ria,” Ajax reassured her. “First, though, I need to know where she is. I need to get her someplace safe.”
“Where will you put her?”
“My place is secure, I’ll put here there,” Ajax stated.
Ria shook her head. “I don’t think she’ll want to do that.”
“I’m not going to give her a choice.”
“I still don’t know if this is a good idea,” she said uneasily to Connor. She was walking behind Ajax as he made his way towards Sophie’s room.
“You think it’s better she stays here?” Connor waved his hand around.
She winced. Ajax had started cursing when she’d directed them to pull up outside this rundown motel.
She knew this place was crap. But it wasn’t like she’d had much choice about where to take Sophie. Wasn’t like either of them had cash to spare.
“Look, I did the best I could, all right? This place is crap but it’s away from any main streets and it’s what we could afford.”
Connor stilled, reached down and gently grabbed hold of her arm. “Hey, I’m not blaming you for this situation.”
No? Well, she was kind of blaming herself.
“I should have done something more,” she said mostly to herself.
“You did what you could, baby. Now it’s time to let someone else take charge.”
Jesus, he didn’t know how tempting his words were. How good would it be to let someone else take some of the load for a while? And she wasn’t just thinking about this shit with Sophie. Her whole life was a mess.
A mess of your own making, Ria. You can’t bring anyone else into that.
They reached Sophie’s door.
“I think it would be better if I knocked,” Ria told Ajax. God, she hoped Sophie wasn’t angry with her for telling them where she was.
Ajax just threw her a look that she couldn’t decipher before he pounded on the door.
“Shit. Like that’s not going to scare the bejeezus out of her.”
She glared up at the big bear of a man.